Rovio scraps soft-launched match-3 RPG Phoenix Rangers

Rovio, maker of the Angry Birds series, has thrown in the towel on its match-3 RPG Phoenix Rangers after seven months in soft launch. Speaking to PocketGamer.biz, a spokesperson for Rovio said that "the decision was taken after the game team decided they wouldn't be able to reach the level of success they were aiming for."

The game tasked you with commanding a team of Pokemon-like monsters, each with their own special abilities and skills. Gameplay mixed match-3 puzzling with some light RPG and hero-collecting elements.

• Small Town Murders is a crime-solving match-three puzzler from Rovio that's available now for iOS and Android

You'd match gems together in order to power your monsters' attacks and take down enemies throughout seemingly dozens of bitesized campaign missions. Some of the challenge stemmed from working out whether a given enemy was weak to any of your available elemental attacks. You can check out some gameplay footage for yourself below.

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Video credit: Uptodown

Game cancellations, even when they're for the best, are always tinged with a bit of sadness. Rovio is no stranger to scrapping in-development games if they're not working out, with Angry Birds Football likely being their most high-profile cancellation.

While Phoenix Rangers is set to be removed from stores, it will still remain playable for those who already have it downloaded until its servers shut down this autumn. As pointed out by PocketGamer.biz, Sensor Tower puts the game at 54,000 downloads and roughly $13,000 of in-game spending. 63% of its downloads were from US players.

If you're a Rovio fan, you should take some comfort in the fact that the studio just recently released Small Town Murders, its mystery-solving puzzler. That one's available for download now as a free-to-play game from over on the App Store and Google Play.